System and method for mobile device active callback integration

ABSTRACT

A system and method for mobile device active callback integration, utilizing a callback integration engine operating on a user&#39;s mobile device that present a callback token for integration through the operating system and software applications operating on the device, wherein interacting with the callback token produces a callback object used to execute a callback incorporating device hardware, context, scheduling, and trust information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Application No. Date Filed Title Current Herewith A SYSTEM AND METHODFOR application INTENT-BASED ACTIVE CALLBACK MANAGEMENT claims benefitof, and priority to: 62/828,133 Apr. 2, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR 2019MOBILE DEVICE ACTIVE CALLBACK INTEGRATION and is also acontinuation-in-part of: 16/542,577 Aug. 16, A SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR2019 INTENT-BASED ACTIVE CALLBACK MANAGEMENT which claims benefit of,and priority to: 62/820,190 Mar. 18, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR 2019 INTENT-BASED ACTIVE CALLBACK MANAGEMENT the entire specification of each ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Art

The disclosure relates to the field of mobile device technology,specifically to the field of integrating cloud-based callback managementsystems with onboard software on a mobile device.

Discussion of the State of the Art

Typically, if a client calls such a business, voice prompt menu choicesenable the calling client to identify the issue for which the clientrequires service and the client is then queued for a service agentcapable of handling the identified issue. As such, it is expected thatclients who identify the purpose of their call as a “billing issue” willbe queued for, and connected to, a service representative with theability to handle billing issues. Similarly, it is expected that clientswho identify the purpose of their call as a “customer service issue”will be queued for, and connected to, a service representative with theability to handle customer service issues.

There are problems with existing communications systems, such as contactcenters, including the following two problems. First, the voice promptmenus that are used to channel callers to the queue for the appropriategroup of service agents are frustrating to clients. It takes significanttime to navigate the layered menus of voice prompts.

Second, waiting on-hold while a connection, be it a phone call, webchat, video conference, or other interaction type, is maintained inqueue for connection to a service agent is also frustrating to clients.

In an effort to reduce customer exacerbation caused by having tomaintain a connection while on-hold in queue, secondary queue systemshave been developed. A typical secondary queue system obtains atelephone number at which the calling client can be reached when aservice representative is available (i.e., a call back number). Theclient disconnects, and then, at the proper time, a call back systemestablishes a connection to the client utilizing the call back numberand couples the client to an available representative without waitingon-hold in queue. One exemplary system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No.6,563,921 to Williams et al. which is commonly assigned with the presentapplication.

While such a system may make the experience of waiting for a connectionto a service representative less frustrating, it does not address theinconvenience of having to navigate a slow and complicated voice promptmenu to enter the queue.

What is needed is a system and various methods for providing integrationof a callback cloud with mobile device software so that callbackfunctionality becomes a transparent and consistent feature acrossinteraction modes through the mobile device ecosystem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a system and methods for mobiledevice active callback integration, utilizing a callback integrationengine operating on a user's mobile device that present a callback tokenfor integration through the operating system and software applicationsoperating on the device, wherein interacting with the callback tokenproduces a callback object used to execute a callback incorporatingdevice hardware, context, scheduling, and trust information. Thefollowing non-limiting summary of the invention is provided for clarity,and should be construed consistently with embodiments described in thedetailed description below.

A mobile device with active callback integration has been devised,comprising: a callback integration engine comprising at least aprocessor, a memory, and a first plurality of programming instructionsstored in the memory and operating on the processor, wherein the firstprogramming instructions, when operating on the processor, cause theprocessor to: provide a callback token representing an interactiveindicia for presentation throughout a software operating system; receiveinteraction from a user via the callback token; produce a callbackobject comprising information associated with the callback token; call acallback participant based on the callback object, the callbackparticipant being another user of another computing device; present anincoming call prompt to the user; and connect the another device and theuser, when both the user and the callback participant answer theirrespective incoming call prompts.

A method for mobile device active callback integration has been devised,comprising the steps of: providing, using a callback integration engineoperating on a computing device, a callback token representing aninteractive indicia for presentation throughout a software operatingsystem; receiving interaction from a user via the callback token;producing a callback object comprising information associated with thecallback token; calling a callback participant based on the callbackobject, the callback participant being another user of another computingdevice; presenting an incoming call prompt to the user; and connectingthe another device and the user, when both the user and the callbackparticipant answer their respective incoming call prompts.

A further mobile device with active callback integration has beendevised, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operable on theprocessor; and a callback integration engine comprising a subset of theplurality of programming instructions that, when operating on theprocessor, cause the processor to: receive an incoming call from acaller at the mobile device; produce a callback token; provide theincoming call and callback token to an operating system of the mobiledevice for presentation to a user as a first incoming call prompt,incorporating the callback token as an interactive element within thefirst incoming call prompt; receive interaction from the user via thecallback token; and transmit a notification to the caller, thenotification comprising instructions for a callback, is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several aspects and, together withthe description, serve to explain the principles of the inventionaccording to the aspects. It will be appreciated by one skilled in theart that the particular arrangements illustrated in the drawings aremerely exemplary, and are not to be considered as limiting of the scopeof the invention or the claims herein in any way.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecturefor a mobile device connected to a callback cloud via a public switchtelephone network and the Internet, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary mobile device with acallback integration engine operating at the operating system level,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary mobile device with acallback integration engine operating at the device firmware level,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a user interface diagram illustrating an exemplary incomingcall on a mobile device with integrated callback features, according toan embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a user interface diagram illustrating an exemplary emailapplication operating on a mobile device with integrated callbackfeatures, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary incoming call flow,according to an embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary callback workflowonce a user selects a callback for an incoming call, according to anembodiment.

FIG. 8 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary callback workflowincorporating device context, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary callback workflowincorporating device hardware information, according to an embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logicalarchitecture for a client device.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architecturalarrangement of clients, servers, and external services.

FIG. 13 is another block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and methodfor intent-based active callback management.

One or more different aspects may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the aspects described herein,numerous alternative arrangements may be described; it should beappreciated that these are presented for illustrative purposes only andare not limiting of the aspects contained herein or the claims presentedherein in any way. One or more of the arrangements may be widelyapplicable to numerous aspects, as may be readily apparent from thedisclosure. In general, arrangements are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice one or more of theaspects, and it should be appreciated that other arrangements may beutilized and that structural, logical, software, electrical and otherchanges may be made without departing from the scope of the particularaspects. Particular features of one or more of the aspects describedherein may be described with reference to one or more particular aspectsor figures that form a part of the present disclosure, and in which areshown, by way of illustration, specific arrangements of one or more ofthe aspects. It should be appreciated, however, that such features arenot limited to usage in the one or more particular aspects or figureswith reference to which they are described. The present disclosure isneither a literal description of all arrangements of one or more of theaspects nor a listing of features of one or more of the aspects thatmust be present in all arrangements.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or morecommunication means or intermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an aspect with several components in communication witheach other does not imply that all such components are required. To thecontrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible aspects and in order to more fullyillustrate one or more aspects. Similarly, although process steps,method steps, algorithms or the like may be described in a sequentialorder, such processes, methods and algorithms may generally beconfigured to work in alternate orders, unless specifically stated tothe contrary. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may bedescribed in this patent application does not, in and of itself,indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. Thesteps of described processes may be performed in any order practical.Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously despite beingdescribed or implied as occurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because onestep is described after the other step). Moreover, the illustration of aprocess by its depiction in a drawing does not imply that theillustrated process is exclusive of other variations and modificationsthereto, does not imply that the illustrated process or any of its stepsare necessary to one or more of the aspects, and does not imply that theillustrated process is preferred. Also, steps are generally describedonce per aspect, but this does not mean they must occur once, or thatthey may only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm iscarried out or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some aspects orsome occurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in agiven aspect or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a singledevice or article may be used in place of the more than one device orarticle.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other aspects need notinclude the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should beappreciated that particular aspects may include multiple iterations of atechnique or multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless notedotherwise. Process descriptions or blocks in figures should beunderstood as representing modules, segments, or portions of code whichinclude one or more executable instructions for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. Alternate implementations areincluded within the scope of various aspects in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

Definitions

“Callback” as used herein refers to an instance of an individual beingcontacted after their initial contact was unsuccessful. For instance, ifa first user calls a second user on a telephone, but the second userdoes not receive their call for one of numerous reasons includingturning off their phone or simply not picking up, the second user maythen place a callback to the first user once they realize they missedtheir call. This callback concept applies equally to many forms ofinteraction that need not be restricted to telephone calls, for exampleincluding (but not limited to) voice calls over a telephone line, videocalls over a network connection, or live text-based chat such as webchat or short message service (SMS) texting. While a callback (andvarious associated components, methods, and operations taught herein)may also be used with an email communication despite the inherentlyasynchronous nature of email (participants may read and reply to emailsat any time, and need not be interacting at the same time or while otherparticipants are online or available), the preferred usage as taughtherein refers to synchronous communication (that is, communication whereparticipants are interacting at the same time, as with a phone call orchat conversation).

“Callback object” as used herein means a data object representingcallback data, such as the identities and call information for a firstand second user, the parameters for a callback including what time itshall be performed, and any other relevant data for a callback to becompleted based on the data held by the callback object.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system architecture100 for a mobile device 101 connected to a callback cloud 110 via apublic switch telephone network 103 and the Internet 102, according toan embodiment. According to the embodiment, callback cloud 110 mayreceive requests via a plurality of communications networks such as apublic switched telephone network (PSTN) 103 or the Internet 102. Theserequests may comprise a variety of communication and interaction types,for example including (but not limited to) voice calls over a telephoneline, video calls over a network connection, or live text-based chatsuch as web chat or short message service (SMS) texting via PSTN 103.Such communications networks may be connected to a plurality of mobiledevices 101 such as a user's smartphone or similar mobile device,according to the particular architecture of communication networkinvolved. Mobile devices 101 may be connected to respectivecommunications networks via a variety of means, which may includetelephone dialers, VOIP telecommunications services, web browserapplications, SMS text messaging services, or other telephony or datacommunications services. It will be appreciated by one having ordinaryskill in the art that such means of communication are exemplary, andmany alternative means are possible and becoming possible in the art,any of which may be utilized as an element of system 100 according tothe invention.

When needed (for example, when a user manually requests a callback orwhen configured settings determine that a callback is needed), a user'smobile device 101 creates a session with a callback cloud 110 with aprofile manager 111, resulting in a callback being required. Profilemanager 111 receives initial requests to connect to callback cloud 110,and forwards relevant user profile information to a callback manager113, which may further request environmental context data from anenvironment analyzer 112. Environmental context data may include (forexample, and not limited to) recorded information about when a user maybe suspected to be driving or commuting from work (as may be determinedfrom device information, such as whether a “do not disturb whiledriving” feature has been enabled, or if the mobile device 101 iscurrently connected to a car audio system), or if the user may be busyfor another reason, such as if they are running or working out (as maybe determined from device sensor data), for example, and may be parsedfrom online profiles or online textual data, using an environmentanalyzer 112.

A callback manager 113 centrally manages all callback data, creating acallback object which may be used to manage the data for a particularcallback, and communicates with an interaction manager 114 which handlesrequests to make calls and bridge calls, which go out to a media server115 which actually makes the calls as requested. In this way, the mediaserver 115 may be altered in the manner in which it makes and bridgescalls when directed, but the callback manager 113 does not need toadjust itself, due to going through an intermediary component, theinteraction manager 114, as an interface between the two. A media server11′5, when directed, may place calls and send messages, emails, orconnect voice over IP (“VoIP”) calls and video calls, to users over aPSTN 103 or the Internet 102. Callback manager 113 may work with auser's profile as managed by a profile manager 111, with environmentalcontext from an environment analyzer 112 as well as (if provided) EWTinformation for any callback recipients (for example, contact centeragents with the appropriate skills to address the callback requestor'sneeds, or online tech support agents to respond to chat requests), todetermine an appropriate callback time for the two users (a callbackrequestor and a callback recipient), interfacing with an interactionmanager 114 to physically place and bridge the calls with a media server115.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary mobile device 101with a callback integration engine 201 operating at the operating systemlevel 230, according to an embodiment. According to the embodiment, amobile device 101 comprises several hardware and software componentsoperating at various levels to provide various functions. At the mostbasic hardware level 210, the physical hardware of the mobile device 101may comprise a processor and memory 211 that provide standard computingdevice functionality as described in detail below, with reference toFIGS. 10-13 (grouped together here for the sake of clarity, it should beappreciated that processor/memory may or may not be part of the samehardware component, such as a system-on-a-chip), a baseband processor212 that manages radio-based communication functions such as cellular orWi-Fi connectivity, as well as any of a number of hardware sensors 213such as (for example, including but not limited to) an accelerometer todetect or measure device movement, gyroscope for detecting or measuringdevice orientation, barometer for measuring ambient environmentconditions, or global positioning system (GPS) receiver for geolocatingthe device.

An operating system (OS) 220 comprises the main software operating onmobile device 101 and providing various software-based functions such assoftware applications and communications. Various software applications221 operating within (for example in an application layer not shown herebut as is commonly used in various computing devices according to thestandard OSI process model of computing systems) on the mobile device101 may expose and provide access to, or interaction with, varioushardware and sensor features such as to enable a user to view orcalibrate sensor readings.

According to the embodiment, a callback integration engine 201 maycomprise local (that is, operating on the mobile device) functionalitysimilar to a cloud-based callback manager 113 described above, and mayoperate as an application or feature at the operating system level 220,running at a similar privilege level and having similar access tohardware and software functions as other applications 221 operating onmobile device 101. This enables easy installation or removal of callbackintegration engine 201, as it may be readily distributed via similarmethods as any other software application (for example, via anapplication store or similar download portal). However, this mayrestrict the capabilities of callback integration engine 201, as it willhave only indirect access to hardware features (as it will only be ableto access whatever features are exposed by the operating system) and inmany cases may be “sandboxed”, and prevented from directly accessingother software or information on the mobile device 201 (for example, ina sandboxed software environment such as APPLE IOS™ or similar).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary mobile device 101with a callback integration engine 201 operating at the device firmwarelevel, according to an embodiment. According to the embodiment, afirmware level 320 encompasses low-level program code that operates“below” the operating system 220, operating directly on hardwarecomponents of mobile 101, and comprises such features as a basebandcontroller 321 that controls features of baseband processor 212 and theoperation of which is fully transparent to the user (that is, a user ofmobile device 101 does not see or interact with firmware, and many usersmay not even be aware of its existence or capabilities).

According to the embodiment, a callback integration engine 201 mayoperate as a firmware component that directly interfaces with hardwarefeatures of mobile device 101, enabling direct control as needed whileexposing desired functionality to the operating system 220 in atransparent manner (that is, the operating system may only know that afeature is available, and may not be able to determine that the featureis provided by the callback integration engine 201 rather than, forexample, the baseband controller 321). This enables more direct controlover device functions, such as call routing and hardware informationsuch as sensor readings (as may be used in callback workflow processing,as described below in greater detail with reference to FIG. 9), andallows the callback integration engine 201 to intercept incoming callsand radio information before it reaches the operating system, so datamay be manipulated and additional features may be integrated prior topresentation to the OS. This also prevents accidental removal ofcallback integration engine 201, as a user may have no control overdevice firmware and anything operating at or below the OS level 220would inherently have insufficient access to modify firmware. Thisfurther enables callback integration engine 201 to access hardwarefeatures that may be restricted or completely prevented when operatingwithin the OS layer 220, for example hardware sensor or geolocationinformation that may be incorporated into a callback workflow asdescribed below (with reference to FIGS. 7-9).

FIG. 4 is a user interface diagram illustrating an exemplary incomingcall 400 on a mobile device 101 with integrated callback features,according to an embodiment. According to the embodiment, a mobile device101 with integrated callback features provided by a callback integrationengine 201 may natively incorporate callback functionality into standardfunctions such as receiving a phone (or voice over Internet protocol,“VoIP”) call, email (as described below with reference to FIG. 5), orother functionality. When a call 400 is received, the native answerprompt may present the user with the usual options to answer 401 ordecline 403 the call, with normal functionality (generally, eitheranswering the call and starting an interaction, or declining the calland sending it to voicemail or an automated prompt).

Callback integration engine 201 may present an additional prompt tosetup a callback 402, either through OS-based software integration withthe callback integration engine operating at the OS layer 220, or as abase-level firmware feature that is natively recognized and exposed bythe OS while the callback integration engine 201 operates at thefirmware level 320. This added option 402 may be used to automaticallyrequest or schedule a callback, for example by providing a message tothe caller requesting they call back at a predetermined time (forexample, based on known availability from a user's on-device calendar),or by engaging with a callback cloud 110 to automatically arrange acallback that connects both participants. Whether or not the callbackprompt 402 is presented may be configurable, such as by incorporatingtrust lists or zones that determine what callers may be eligible for acallback (similar to a “favorite contacts” list that may be able to callthe user even when a do-not-disturb feature is enabled), orcontext-based configuration such as to provide a callback prompt whenthe user is in a meeting or otherwise scheduled as “busy” in theircalendar, or when the user is driving.

FIG. 5 is a user interface diagram illustrating an exemplary emailapplication 500 operating on a mobile device 101 with integratedcallback features, according to an embodiment. According to theembodiment, an email message or contact may be augmented with callbackfunctionality provided by callback integration engine 201, presented asan option 501 to setup an automated callback from within an emailapplication 500. This feature may incorporate information from thecurrent email such as a topic 503, timing 504, or contact information502, as well as any additional device, context, user, or otherinformation that may be relevant (for example, calendar information orother emails outside the current message or thread), and cause acallback object to be generated. This callback object may then be usedto automatically schedule and execute a callback by contacting theparticipants 502 of the email (and it should be appreciated that thisneed not be limited to two participants, and may be used to createautomated conference calls), and then bridge the individual calls toeach participant to complete the interaction by connecting theparticipants together into a single call.

Callbacks may be scheduled according to a variety of criteria, including(but not limited to) user availability as determined from preconfiguredsettings or known context (for example, calendar or email informationsuch as invitation responses or verbal commitments in messages that maynot have been separately entered into a calendar), user activity basedon device information such as network or sensor data (such as if thedevice is paired to a car audio system, indicating the user is driving,or if there is significant accelerometer data that might indicate theuser is in the middle of an exercise activity). Callbacks may then bescheduled to occur when the user is available or no longer indisposed,and may also incorporate availability on the part of the caller by (forexample) providing them with a selection of callback options to fromwhich to select a specific callback time. In addition to providing acallback selection on an incoming call prompt, the callback function maybe exposed in other areas throughout the device's OS and applications,such as from within voicemail messages (to setup an automated callbackwith the caller that left the voicemail), social media apps (to setupautomated callbacks with other users), or potentially any applicationoperating on the device 201 (such as to setup an automated callback fortechnical support). This integrated callback operation may be consistentthroughout the device's software, providing a native user experiencethat blends seamlessly with the other features and elements of thedevice's operating system and applications.

To generate, schedule, and execute callbacks, a callback object iscreated on the user's device 101 to represent the callback informationsuch as scheduling, context information, user and caller information,and any additional data pertinent to the callback (for example, relatedinteractions such as previous calls or emails exchanged with the caller,or a known call intent based on available information from the userand/or caller, such as email transcripts or voicemail messages). Thiscallback object may be created and maintained on-device, operatinglocally within the callback integration engine 201 or within anapplication or feature of the operating system 220 of the user's device101, enabling full callback functionality regardless of any connectionto, or availability of, a callback cloud 110. In other arrangements,callback objects may be cloud-based to provide a centralized orsoftware-as-a-service (SaaS) operation mode, for example to providetiered or subscription-based callback functionalities offered by acallback cloud through handling of callback objects on behalf of users.

FIG. 6 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary incoming call flow,according to an embodiment. According to the embodiment, a call isreceived 601 at a mobile device 101. A callback integration engine 201then analyzes the information available for the call 602, such as (forexample, including but not limited to) caller ID, caller and recipienttime zones, or whether the caller is a member of a trust zone in theuser's settings or contact information (or a trust zone not configuredby the user, such as a corporate trust zone for coworkers andcolleagues). If the caller is eligible (that is, if they have sufficienttrust or if their call is determined to be valuable to the user, such asa call from a technical support number for a company the user recentlycontacted), a callback token is associated with the call data 603. Ifthe user is untrusted, such as a blocked user or a suspected “spam”number, the call may be passed to the OS layer unmodified 604. Whenreceived by the OS layer, the call is then displayed as an incomingnotification as usual 605, with a callback token (if available) used toplace an additional callback button within the interface using thenative OS and call notification user experience (UX) design. Thisprovides an integrated automated callback functionality that istransparently incorporated into device features in a manner consistentwith the operating system's UX and familiar to the user, blending thenew functionality with the rest of the device features. It should befurther appreciated that this mode of operation may function whether thecallback integration engine 201 is operating at the firmware 320 or OS220 level, as many mobile operating systems such as ANDROID™ and IOS™allow for applications to integrate with communication features such asphone dialers and incoming call notification prompts.

FIG. 7 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary callback workflowonce a user selects a callback for an incoming call, according to anembodiment. Initially, a callback button is selected 701 by the user,either from an incoming call that they wish to defer to an automatedcallback or from an email for which they wish to automatically setup acallback, or any other interaction, application, or location where anintegrated callback button may be present. A callback object isinstantiated 702, using a callback integration engine 201, which is anobject with data fields representing the various parts of callback datafor the user and any other callback participants (for example, thecaller if a callback button was pressed on an incoming callnotification, or other individuals participating in an email thread ifthe callback button was pressed from within an email message), and anyrelated information such as what scheduled times may be possible forsuch a callback to take place. This callback object is then stored andmaintained by the callback integration engine 703, updating informationwhen necessary such as to accommodate changes in scheduling or aparticipant indicating that they will be unavailable during the selectedcallback time. This may result in modifying the existing callback toreschedule it, and when the conditions for the callback are met(scheduled time arrives, users are available, or any other conditionsthat may have been set), the callback integration engine 201 initiates acall to each participant 704 and then bridges them into a single call705 where they may interact. This provides automated connection ofmultiple individuals as needed, without requiring any participant toinitiate the call or remember scheduling information, as the entireprocess is handled “behind the scenes” by the callback integrationengine 201.

FIG. 8 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary callback workflowincorporating device context, according to an embodiment. According tothe embodiment, when a user selects a callback button 801, callbackintegration engine 201 may analyze a variety of information availablewhen determining how to setup the callback being requested. Contactinformation for each participant may be examined 802, including contactmethods (for example, primary or alternative phone numbers, personal orwork email addresses, or other communication means) to determine thebest methods and numbers to reach participants.

Trust and role information may include determining whether a participanthas sufficient trust to be included in the callback (for example, acallback for an email conversation may not necessarily automaticallyinclude all email participants, such as to exclude receive-only emailaddresses that may be included in a conversation for organizational ortechnical purposes but which would have no place in a call and mayinterfere with attempts to complete a callback), individual roles orabilities such as skills or organizational departments (for example, acallback for technical support may not include an individual from sales,even if they were present in an email conversation, or a callback for anincoming call from a corporate contact may not necessarily be setup toconnect that specific individual with the user and may instead findsomeone more suitable to address the user's needs), or other informationthat may be specific to individuals available to participate in acallback.

Additional information may be made available through third-partyintegrations such as (for example) connecting to a callback cloud 110 toretrieve information about corporate contacts such as technical supportor sales, to retrieve estimate wait time (EWT) information for a contactcenter, or to retrieve business hours for use in scheduling thecallback. For example trust information may be determined usingpublic/private key pairs rather than configurable trust zones; in thisarrangement, a participant's key may represent their unique identifierwithin a callback system and be compared against a known public key todetermine if the caller is who they claim to be, or if they arepermitted to participate in a callback. Keys may be managed and brokeredby a third-party service operated by (for example) a callback cloud 110,enabling trust delegation to a centralized entity that operates as atrust broker and can see and manage many users rather than relying onany particular user to maintain complex trust and role information ontheir own device.

Scheduling information is also checked 803, including the user'scalendar or to-do list items to determine their own availability, aswell as any available scheduling cues for other callback participantssuch as business hours, shared calendar events, or information containedin previous interactions (for example, if the two individuals exchangedemails discussing events or timing information).

Additional device information may then be analyzed 804, includinginformation on a user's other devices that may be useful in determiningcallback conditions. For example, a user may have a chat window activeon their computer, wherein they are conversing with a second individual.If the user then clicks or taps on a callback button within an emailconversation on their mobile device, the chat on their desktop may beanalyzed to provide additional context such as topic or schedulinginformation that would otherwise not be known to software on the mobiledevice alone. This can be accomplished in a number of ways according tothe particular operating systems and devices involved, for example ashared user account or profile that is logged into multiple devices mayprovide a connection between callback integration engine 201 andsoftware or data on another device associated with the same account (forexample, callback integration engine 201 may be granted remote access toinformation on another device by providing the user's accountcredentials). In other arrangements, a network may be used to connectbetween devices such as over Wi-Fi™ or BLUETOOTH™, for example as isused in APPLE AIRDROP™ or HANDOFF™ functionality to share informationbetween devices running MACOS™ and/or IOS™ operating systems. Thisenables transparent information sharing between a user's devices, soinformation on each device may be pooled and analyzed together to ensurethe callback integration engine 201 makes the most-informed decisionpossible.

Finally, once all available context information has been processed, acallback object is created 805 that incorporates the necessaryinformation for the callback (such as topic, participants, andscheduling) and the conditions determined by callback integration engine201 to be optimum for the callback (such as when all appropriateparticipants will be available), and is then stored and maintained sothe callback can be performed when the selected conditions have beenmet.

FIG. 9 is a method diagram illustrating an exemplary callback workflowincorporating device hardware information, according to an embodiment.According to the embodiment, when a user selects a callback button 901,their device hardware information may be analyzed by callbackintegration engine 201 to assist in determining the optimum conditionsfor a callback. Hardware information may be examined 902, includingidentifying any available sensors according to the user's particularmobile device 101, for example an accelerometer, gyroscope, barometer,thermometer, or compass, as well as other device hardware capabilitiessuch as network connections or input/output capabilities and activity.Sensor data may be analyzed 903 to determine current conditions aroundthe user, such as ambient noise levels, movement, or whether the user iscurrently engaged in any sort of physical activity such as running orworking out (and thus unable to take calls until finished).Additionally, hardware components that may not explicitly be identifiedas “sensors” may be analyzed as well, such as device microphones orspeakers (for example, to determine if the user is currently listeningto audio content and therefore busy for the duration of the content, orif the user is in a loud environment and thus unable to take a calluntil they are in a quieter place).

Device network connection information may then be analyzed 904, todetermine additional factors such as whether the device is currentlyconnected to a car audio system (indicating that the user is driving andthus unable to take a call until they have reached a safe location andstopped operating the vehicle), whether a user's other devices arenearby for information exchange (as described above, with reference toFIG. 8), or whether any accessory devices are connected that may be usedto provide additional information (such as fitness devices connectedover BLUETOOTH™ or ANT+™ connections, external GPS devices, connectedaudio devices such as headphones, or any other accessories). Thisinformation may be analyzed to determine what activities the user iscurrently engaged in, as well as their likely short-term availability(for example, if they are driving, a navigation application may bechecked to see if their destination and ETA are known, or if they areengaged in a fitness activity, the anticipated duration may be estimatedor determined from available information on the mobile device orconnected accessories).

Once all hardware information has been analyzed, a callback object isthen created 905 that accommodates the user's current activities andenvironment to determine a good time to execute the callback, when theuser will be available and uninvolved in other activities and when theenvironment may be more conducive to a call.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (“ASIC”), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of the aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on a programmable network-residentmachine (which should be understood to include intermittently connectednetwork-aware machines) selectively activated or reconfigured by acomputer program stored in memory. Such network devices may havemultiple network interfaces that may be configured or designed toutilize different types of network communication protocols. A generalarchitecture for some of these machines may be described herein in orderto illustrate one or more exemplary means by which a given unit offunctionality may be implemented. According to specific aspects, atleast some of the features or functionalities of the various aspectsdisclosed herein may be implemented on one or more general-purposecomputers associated with one or more networks, such as for example anend-user computer system, a client computer, a network server or otherserver system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tablet computing device,mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, or other appropriate computingdevice), a consumer electronic device, a music player, or any othersuitable electronic device, router, switch, or other suitable device, orany combination thereof. In at least some aspects, at least some of thefeatures or functionalities of the various aspects disclosed herein maybe implemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or other appropriate virtual environments).

Referring now to FIG. 10, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 10 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 10 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 10 may be configuredto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 10 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 12, one or more interfaces 15, and one or morebusses 14 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 12 maybe responsible for implementing specific functions associated with thefunctions of a specifically configured computing device or machine. Forexample, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 10 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 12,local memory 11 and/or remote memory 16, and interface(s) 15. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 12 may be caused to perform one or more of thedifferent types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 12 may include one or more processors 13 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 13 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 10. In a specific embodiment,a local memory 11 (such as non-volatile random access memory (RAM)and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one or more levelsof cached memory) may also form part of CPU 12. However, there are manydifferent ways in which memory may be coupled to system 10. Memory 11may be used for a variety of purposes such as, for example, cachingand/or storing data, programming instructions, and the like. It shouldbe further appreciated that CPU 12 may be one of a variety ofsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) type hardware that may include additionalhardware such as memory or graphics processing chips, such as a QUALCOMMSNAPDRAGON™ or SAMSUNG EXYNOS™ CPU as are becoming increasingly commonin the art, such as for use in mobile devices or integrated devices.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 15 are provided as network interface cards(NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 15 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 10. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, THUNDERBOLT™, PCI, parallel, radiofrequency (RF), BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., usingnear-field magnetics), 802.11 (Wi-Fi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fastEthernet interfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, Serial ATA (SATA) orexternal SATA (ESATA) interfaces, high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI), digital visual interface (DVI), analog or digital audiointerfaces, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) interfaces, high-speedserial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Point of Sale (POS) interfaces,fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), and the like. Generally, suchinterfaces 15 may include physical ports appropriate for communicationwith appropriate media. In some cases, they may also include anindependent processor (such as a dedicated audio or video processor, asis common in the art for high-fidelity A/V hardware interfaces) and, insome instances, volatile and/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 10 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 10 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 13 may be used, and such processors 13may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 13 handles communicationsas well as routing computations, while in other embodiments a separatededicated communications processor may be provided. In variousembodiments, different types of features or functionalities may beimplemented in a system according to the invention that includes aclient device (such as a tablet device or smartphone running clientsoftware) and server systems (such as a server system described in moredetail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 16 and local memory 11) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 16 or memories 11,16 may also be configured to store data structures, configuration data,encryption data, historical system operations information, or any otherspecific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory (as is common in mobile devices andintegrated systems), solid state drives (SSD) and “hybrid SSD” storagedrives that may combine physical components of solid state and hard diskdrives in a single hardware device (as are becoming increasingly commonin the art with regard to personal computers), memristor memory, randomaccess memory (RAM), and the like. It should be appreciated that suchstorage means may be integral and non-removable (such as RAM hardwaremodules that may be soldered onto a motherboard or otherwise integratedinto an electronic device), or they may be removable such as swappableflash memory modules (such as “thumb drives” or other removable mediadesigned for rapidly exchanging physical storage devices),“hot-swappable” hard disk drives or solid state drives, removableoptical storage discs, or other such removable media, and that suchintegral and removable storage media may be utilized interchangeably.Examples of program instructions include both object code, such as maybe produced by a compiler, machine code, such as may be produced by anassembler or a linker, byte code, such as may be generated by forexample aJAVA™ compiler and may be executed using aJava virtual machineor equivalent, or files containing higher level code that may beexecuted by the computer using an interpreter (for example, scriptswritten in Python, Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 11,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 20 includes processors 21that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 24. Processors 21 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 22 such as, forexample, a version of MICROSOFT WINDOWS™ operating system, APPLE OSX™ oriOS™ operating systems, some variety of the Linux operating system,ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases, one or moreshared services 23 may be operable in system 20, and may be useful forproviding common services to client applications 24. Services 23 may forexample be WINDOWS™ services, user-space common services in a Linuxenvironment, or any other type of common service architecture used withoperating system 21. Input devices 28 may be of any type suitable forreceiving user input, including for example a keyboard, touchscreen,microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse, touchpad, trackball,or any combination thereof. Output devices 27 may be of any typesuitable for providing output to one or more users, whether remote orlocal to system 20, and may include for example one or more screens forvisual output, speakers, printers, or any combination thereof. Memory 25may be random-access memory having any structure and architecture knownin the art, for use by processors 21, for example to run software.Storage devices 26 may be any magnetic, optical, mechanical, memristor,or electrical storage device for storage of data in digital form (suchas those described above, referring to FIG. 10). Examples of storagedevices 26 include flash memory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or thelike.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 12, there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture 30 for implementing at leasta portion of a system according to an embodiment of the invention on adistributed computing network. According to the embodiment, any numberof clients 33 may be provided. Each client 33 may run software forimplementing client-side portions of the present invention; clients maycomprise a system 20 such as that illustrated in FIG. 11. In addition,any number of servers 32 may be provided for handling requests receivedfrom one or more clients 33. Clients 33 and servers 32 may communicatewith one another via one or more electronic networks 31, which may be invarious embodiments any of the Internet, a wide area network, a mobiletelephony network (such as CDMA or GSM cellular networks), a wirelessnetwork (such as WiFi, WiMAX, LTE, and so forth), or a local areanetwork (or indeed any network topology known in the art; the inventiondoes not prefer any one network topology over any other). Networks 31may be implemented using any known network protocols, including forexample wired and/or wireless protocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 32 may call external services37 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 37 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 31. In various embodiments, external services 37 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 24 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 24 may obtain information stored in a serversystem 32 in the cloud or on an external service 37 deployed on one ormore of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 33 or servers 32 (or both)may make use of one or more specialized services or appliances that maybe deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks 31. Forexample, one or more databases 34 may be used or referred to by one ormore embodiments of the invention. It should be understood by one havingordinary skill in the art that databases 34 may be arranged in a widevariety of architectures and using a wide variety of data access andmanipulation means. For example, in various embodiments one or moredatabases 34 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, HADOOP CASSANDRA™, GOOGLE BIGTABLE™, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 36 and configuration systems 35. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 36 orconfiguration system 35 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

FIG. 13 shows an exemplary overview of a computer system 40 as may beused in any of the various locations throughout the system. It isexemplary of any computer that may execute code to process data. Variousmodifications and changes may be made to computer system 40 withoutdeparting from the broader scope of the system and method disclosedherein. Central processor unit (CPU) 41 is connected to bus 42, to whichbus is also connected memory 43, nonvolatile memory 44, display 47,input/output (I/O) unit 48, and network interface card (NIC) 53. I/Ounit 48 may, typically, be connected to keyboard 49, pointing device 50,hard disk 52, and real-time clock 51. NIC 53 connects to network 54,which may be the Internet or a local network, which local network may ormay not have connections to the Internet. Also shown as part of system40 is power supply unit 45 connected, in this example, to a mainalternating current (AC) supply 46. Not shown are batteries that couldbe present, and many other devices and modifications that are well knownbut are not applicable to the specific novel functions of the currentsystem and method disclosed herein. It should be appreciated that someor all components illustrated may be combined, such as in variousintegrated applications, for example Qualcomm or Samsungsystem-on-a-chip (SOC) devices, or whenever it may be appropriate tocombine multiple capabilities or functions into a single hardware device(for instance, in mobile devices such as smartphones, video gameconsoles, in-vehicle computer systems such as navigation or multimediasystems in automobiles, or other integrated hardware devices).

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mobile device with active callback integration,comprising: a processor, a memory, and a plurality of programminginstructions stored in the memory and operable on the processor; and acallback integration engine comprising a subset of the plurality ofprogramming instructions that, when operating on the processor, causethe processor to: provide a callback token representing an interactiveindicia configured for presentation throughout an operating system ofthe mobile device; receive interaction from a user via the callbacktoken; produce a callback object in memory comprising informationassociated with the callback token; call a callback participant based onthe callback object, the callback participant being another user ofanother computing device; present an incoming call prompt to the user;and connect the another device and the user, when both the user and thecallback participant answer their respective incoming call prompts. 2.The system of claim 1, wherein the callback integration engine analyzesthe user's calendar, and wherein the callback object comprisesscheduling information based on the results of the analysis.
 3. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the callback integration engine analyzeshardware information of the computing device, and wherein the callbackobject comprises context information based on the results of theanalysis.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the callback integrationengine selects the callback participant based on trust information, thetrust information comprising an indication of whether the callbackparticipant is trusted by the user.
 5. The system of claim 4, whereinthe trust information further comprises third-party trust informationprovided by a trust broker.
 6. A method for mobile device activecallback integration, comprising the steps of: providing, using acallback integration engine operating on a computing device, a callbacktoken representing an interactive indicia for presentation throughout asoftware operating system; receiving interaction from a user via thecallback token; producing a callback object comprising informationassociated with the callback token; calling a callback participant basedon the callback object, the callback participant being another user ofanother computing device; presenting an incoming call prompt to theuser; and connecting the another device and the user, when both the userand the callback participant answer their respective incoming callprompts.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the callback integrationengine analyzes the user's calendar, and wherein the callback objectcomprises scheduling information based on the results of the analysis.8. The method of claim 6, wherein the callback integration engineanalyzes hardware information of the computing device, and wherein thecallback object comprises context information based on the results ofthe analysis.
 9. The method of claim 6, wherein the callback integrationengine selects the callback participant based on trust information, thetrust information comprising an indication of whether the callbackparticipant is trusted by the user.
 10. The method of claim 9, whereinthe trust information further comprises third-party trust informationprovided by a trust broker.
 11. A mobile device with active callbackintegration, comprising: a processor, a memory, and a plurality ofprogramming instructions stored in the memory and operable on theprocessor; and a callback integration engine comprising a subset of theplurality of programming instructions that, when operating on theprocessor, cause the processor to: receive an incoming call from acaller at the mobile device; produce a callback token; provide theincoming call and callback token to an operating system of the mobiledevice for presentation to a user as a first incoming call prompt,incorporating the callback token as an interactive element within thefirst incoming call prompt; receive interaction from the user via thecallback token; and transmit a notification to the caller, thenotification comprising instructions for a callback.
 12. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the callback integration engine analyzes availableinformation about the caller, and the callback token is produced basedon the results of the analysis.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein thecallback integration engine analyzes the user's calendar, and whereinthe callback instructions are based on the results of the analysis. 14.The system of claim 11, wherein the callback integration engine analyzeshardware information of the computing device, and wherein the callbackinstructions are based on the results of the analysis.